


The Masquerade

by MissNightTigress



Category: Avengers, Frostiron - Fandom, Iron Man - Fandom, Loki - Fandom, Marvel, Thor - Fandom, marvel movie universe
Genre: Angst, Dancing, F/M, Love, Love/Hate, Lust, Masquerade, Rejection, acception
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-22
Updated: 2013-08-22
Packaged: 2017-12-24 08:40:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/937914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissNightTigress/pseuds/MissNightTigress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the New York incident, Natasha "Toni" Stark threw herself back into the worlds of science and business. She expected everything to go fine until the next attack. She didn't realize fate had something else in store: a visit from an old acquaintance who hurled her out of her penthouse window. She had expected the worst to happen, and was in for quite a shock. Maybe this was the greatest show of them all...</p><p>*This is a rewrite of a work I did last year. THIS IS AN UPDATED AND BETTER VERSION. I will continue with this as much as my muse allows. Thank you all for your time and patience!*</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Masquerade

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Masquerade](https://archiveofourown.org/works/543620) by [MissNightTigress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissNightTigress/pseuds/MissNightTigress). 



Natasha rolled in her satin sheets as her body twisted itself into comfortable sleeping positions. It was the first night she got any real sleep since the battle with Loki so many weeks ago, and JARVIS really didn’t want to disturb her. If he didn’t, she’d be late for her appointment.

“Miss Stark?”

His futile attempt was met with a snore as a response. So, he tried again.

“Miss Stark?”

A moan this time. That was better than a snore.

The steel door at the other end of the long modernly-decorated bedroom clanged open, and a tall tan woman stepped through. Her messy hair was a bright red, almost strawberry blonde color, a navy business suit covering her body. In her firm right hand was an Android tablet. Her eyes glanced up at the ceiling before she spoke in a decibel just above a whisper. “I’ll handle this, JARVIS.”

“As you wish, Ms. Potts.”

Pepper’s navy heels made indents on the plush carpet of Toni’s bedroom as she stepped toward the edge of the king-sized bed and gandered downward at the sleeping head of Stark Industries. She knew the inventor was up late inventing anymore, making modifications to the suit and new renovations to the tower Loki destroyed. However, that night was the Iron Stomach fundraiser, one of the biggest fundraisers Toni held. It wasn’t exactly going to host itself. “Wake up, Toni.”

The woman snarled and rolled over, her foot swinging out from underneath the covers and catching the back of Pepper’s knee as she grumbled, “If I didn’t answer the first two times, what the hell makes you think I’m going to answer the third?”

“How many cocktails did you drink last night?”

Her fingers clenched at the edge of the black comforter as she pulled it over her head. “None.”

“Ms. Stark had six, followed by that many shots of tequila,” the AI answered.

Toni hissed at the ceiling. “I’m going to deprogram you and use you as scraps, you rat. I thought we had something special.”

“We do, Miss. I am merely concerned for your safety.”

“Concern a little less.”

Pepper rolled her eyes and managed to claw the comforter from Toni’s fists. Iron Woman groaned and shrunk into a ball as response. “Don’t yell at him. He’s doing what he was programmed by you to do. When you were out drinking, did you remember what today was?”

“It’s ‘Get the hell out of Toni’s room or so help me’ day, right?”

Pepper’s jaw locked. “No. Today is the Iron Stomach gala at the Ritz.”

Toni unraveled her body and slung an arm over her eyes. “I made you CEO. You handle it. I’m taking a day off.”

“Do you know the kind of preparations we’ve already gone through for this? I gave the title of CEO back to you anyway. This is all on you. Besides, it’ll do you some good to get out of the lab for a little bit.”

The arm peeled away as chocolate eyes opened to glare at the assistant. “But sciiiiiiiiieeeeeeeence.” She sounded like a little kid, but she didn’t care. Going to that damn fundraiser meant having to get all dolled up. She was perfectly fine being a grease monkey.

“Toni, we’ve already canceled a major event once in the last three months. If we do it again, people will begin to talk, especially the shareholders. You need to do some good press, especially now that you and the other Avengers have damaged a good chunk of the city.”

“At least it was only part of the city and not the whole damn thing. Ever see what happens when Superman tries to save the world? He does more damage than good, I tell ya.”

She rolled her eyes and tugged the blanket the rest of the way off the CEO. “You gonna get up?”

“You gonna get out?”

“Not until I see you up and moving.”

Toni hissed once more but unfurled her body, taking her time to stretch before physically rising from the bed onto her feet. “There. Satisfied?”

“Very. Now get changed. We have to go make the final preparations and make sure everything’s in order.”

Toni growled and stomped to her closet. “All right, all right! Get out. I’ll be down in a minute.”

Pepper grinned wide and nodded. “Very well, Toni. By the way?”

“What?”

“No suit. JARVIS is on lockdown so you can’t create another scene before tonight.”

“God dammit, Pepper!”

“See you downstairs, Toni.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

There wasn’t much that could keep a god imprisoned, not even Asgardian cells. Then again, Thor was the dolt who let the God of Mischief out to aid in battle, so it wasn’t so much a question of the cell’s safety as it was Thor’s sense of judgment. It didn’t matter to Loki, though. He was in Midgard now, and he made sure no one could see him.

Loki stepped from an alley and glanced around at the humans and the bizarre look they were giving him. “Peasants,” he spat as he walked into a crowd of men and women in business suits.

“Are you attending the Iron Stomach fundraiser tonight?” his ears heard one of the women say.

“I don’t know. Stark’s ego is going to be overwhelmed thanks to the alien incident. It’s a masquerade anyway. What if I danced with a guy, wanted to go home with him, and I found out he had leprosy or something?”

“You’re so shallow, Maggie. You’re 36! It’s time to settle down.”

The god tuned them both out after that. He had gotten his crucial information from the women, and he was done. Instead, he focused on the large building that said “Stark” on it and grinned wickedly. “Looks like I’m invited to a ball. See you there, Woman of Iron.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

“No! These aren’t the flowers I ordered! I ordered red and gold tiger lilies with dyed roses. What the hell…the centerpieces are all wrong. Come on, people! You’ve had two days and several hours today to prepare this, and it isn’t done? Seriously?”

Toni immediately jumped in and started getting her hands dirty by rearranging the centerpieces when Pepper trotted over. “This is exactly why you should’ve been here instead of the lab the last few days. Everything would be exactly the way you want it.”

“Please tell me you’re on top of fixing this disaster.” Toni leaned toward Pepper’s frame and whined like a petulant child. “You always come through for meeeeee.”

“Which is why I did so this time, Toni,” the redhead chuckled, handing her boss a piece of paper.  
“I have everything arriving within the hour and everything will be exactly like you want it to be. Who’s the best?”

“You are,” she grinned. Chocolate eyes wandered around until they rested on a petite blonde girl in a business suit rushing toward them – no doubt, the concierge. “Need something, Tinkerbell?”

She blushed softly and panted. “M-Miss Stark? The florist has arrived, and the catering crew is around back.”

Iron Woman grinned and patted the girl on the shoulder. “Thank you, Tink. I appreciate it. Keep doing your job.” When she bounced away, Toni whistled for the decorating crew to gather. “All right, boys. I need you to go lift those flowers and come back in here and rearrange all of this. I promise, you will be supplied with pizza and booze for your efforts. I’ll go grab it right now. Thank you!”

The crew moaned and grumbled, which wasn’t shocking. Toni would’ve bitched herself if she wasn’t a billionaire and had to do this all herself. What was shocking was the one icy grin she was receiving from a man in the back. It was enough to catch her off her guard, she had to admit. There was something about him…

Pepper glanced over to her boss and rolled her eyes. “I know that look, and no, you can’t. You have to stay focused, Toni.”

Breaking out of her trance, dark mocha wavy locks shook with her head. “What? What look? What’s breaking my focus? What?”

“You’re staring at one of the workers. No. You can’t have him.”

“Who said I wanted him?”

“The look!”

“What look?”

Pepper sighed in exasperation as her hip shot out to the side, her lips turning downward. “The look, Toni. The look you give all your bedded victims-”

“Victims?”

“-And then you screw something up by not calling them and that is how you’ve gained your ‘playgirl’ reputation.”

“Which I’m proud of. As I recall, you were victim to ‘the look’ a couple times. Are you bitching about it now?”

Pep blushed and turned on her heel. “You’re cheating.”

“I’m merely using all of the pieces at my disposal. I can’t be blamed for being strategic. I’m heading over to Palmiro’s. Want anything?”

“I’m in the mood for a couple pepperoni rolls, if you don’t mind.”

The brunette grinned. “I see what you did there. All right. I’ll be back!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

It was a beautiful day in Manhattan, really. The sun was shining and it was just the right temperature. It was the perfect day to go for a stroll to the pizza shop. Maybe getting out of the lab wasn’t so bad.

Toni kept her eyes glued to her phone as she walked, running schematics on new suits and getting updates from Pepper about the project. She only glanced up when she finally reached Palmiro’s. “Hey, Poppa P!”

An older gentleman behind the counter grinned and threw his hands in the air. “Ah! Miss-a Toni! Pleasure to-a ‘ave you! What can we-a do for you?”

Manicured nails took the aviator sunglasses from her eyes and pushed them into her hair. “I need six of your Party Poppas, half with extra cheese, and half with pepperoni. I also need two dozen pepperoni rolls. No one makes ‘em like you.”

Poppa beamed even wider and added the items together on the cash register. “That’s-a why you’re one of-a my favorites! Comin’ right-a up!”

“Thank you,” she sang, her eyes wandering to the walls to the old photographs hanging as proud decorations. Poppa Palmiro was just a boy when his parents had migrated over from the Tuscany province of Italy. His walls were adorned with photos of his old home and his new home, and Toni enjoyed looking at each one. She was thankful his business managed to stay safe after the incident with Loki.

As she continued looking around, she suddenly felt something strong around her. It felt like icy eyes were gazing into her soul. When she turned on the heel of her black flat, she saw nothing. No one was gazing out her, inside the establishment or out. The only person in the place was a little old woman cutting her pizza with a plastic fork and a knife in a booth in the back. Her chest heaved in a heavy sigh, and she focused on Poppa P behind the counter.

“Greetings, Woman of Iron.”

The way the voice spoke to her made her hair on the back of her neck stand. Growling, she whipped around and saw the very one who threw her from her penthouse at Stark Tower sitting where the old woman had been. There Loki was, donning the familiar black, green, and gold leather and metal garb he was last seen in. “What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were imprisoned.”

Loki tipped his head and snarled. “I was, thanks to you and the other ‘heroes.’ More like misfits from where I’m sitting. I was stuck in that damned muzzle for weeks, until Thor came along.”

Toni’s arms snaked over her chest as she tossed the god a cocky grin. “So you managed to escape. Big deal. We caught you before and we’ll catch you again. Thor will be here any minute to cart your ass back.”

“Come now, Stark, really. Why allow him to cart me back to a place where it’s evident I will escape from?” He offered a vicious grin as the shoulders of his armor rolled. “I mean you no harm now that I’m free of the Tesseract’s wicked hold.”

“You’ve seen what I can construct, and yet you still think I’m dumb enough to buy that you were controlled by that thing? I’m a businesswoman. I can smell shit from a mile away and right now, you reek of it.”

He chuckled darkly and gestured to the booth opposite him with long fingers. “Join me, won’t you?”

She snorted. “You already tried that. Performance issues, remember?” Nonetheless, she walked over and took a seat. What was the worst that could happen, really? “So why are you here, really? If you don’t want to dominate the world, or at least have the tools to, then why are you here? What do you gain from this?”

“So many questions from the businesswoman. I thought business was like the game of Kriger Sjakkspill.”

“What the hell is that?”

“Loosely translated in Norwegian, it’s Warrior Chess. It’s like your pathetic edition, but with more violence and actual living pawns. Either way, it requires strategy. You should be able to tell my true purpose here if you were decent at your job.”

“I’m not a psychic. Why can’t you just answer my questions?”

He grinned and leaned forward, hands clasped together under his chin. “What fun would that be? You should know I enjoy torture, and seeing my very presence seems to dig right under your skin, exactly like I like it.”

Something about the way he said that last part made Toni’s skin crawl, in both a good and bad way. She was about to reply when Poppa P called her to take her order. “Here we go, Miss-a Stark!” he declared, holding six enormous rectangle boxes with two bags on top of the stack.

Her eyes left the god not even for two seconds, and when they fixated on him again, it was the little old lady. Her lips curled into a small snarl as she rose. “Knocking” her phone out of her own hand and onto the floor beside the woman, she growled, “If you put so much as a trash can lid out of place, I won’t hesitate to destroy you. Keep it clean, and you and I might just get along. Am I understood?”

The old woman offered Toni a small smile, but Toni could see the forest green eyes of the God of Mischief she was previously sitting in front of. “Crystal clear,” he muttered. “It was nice to see you, deary,” the little old lady said.

Toni growled again before rising completely and grabbing her order. “Thank you, Poppa P. See ya later! And hey, stay safe would you?”

“Bye-a bye, Miss-a Stark! Have a good-a party!”

Outside the pizza shop, Toni called JARVIS at the tower. “Jarv, I want the place on total lockdown. Don’t alert anyone, but I just saw Loki.”

“Miss, are you-”

“I wasn’t hallucinating, and yes, I am sure. I don’t want another security breech like last time. I’ll be home shortly.”

“As you wish, Miss Stark.”


End file.
